Faux Ink Drawing

I love the look of ink drawings even if they're faux. Simply change the photo to black and white and pump up the contrast, then play with levels; all done in PSE. This is another version of the Back Bay.

I'm trying to get the art grove back, it's been MIA for way too long. The calender looks a bit crowded to fit enough days in to suit my needs for creativity, but then can't creativity be found in everything we do? Hm, not exactly what I had in mind. I need paint and fabric, and I need them now!

I'm attempting to clear the decks for more fabric art and in order to do that quite a few items in the etsy shop are now marked down. The clearance prices are good until 11/22. And I've added a few more vintage portraits.

Manipulated Photos

Back in the dark ages, the 80's, when I had a darkroom, it could hours or often days to manipulate a photograph. This one is a window with torn curtains with a second image of clouds over it.

In order to get the blue effect split developing was called for. My notes on the back say, Selenium and blue, and I have no idea how it was done beyond that other than it took hours and hours to get a few prints. Fast forward to 2010 and in a short time one can manipulate images without breathing in nasty chemicals. Project #4 in Susan Tuttle's book, "Digital Expressions" is marvelous and in just three hours I had four new images from my photo collection.

Quote: To have peace and confidence within our souls--these are the beliefs that make for happiness. Maurice Maeterlinck

                   

Kangaroo Paw

There are three Kangaroo Paw plants in the garden and while the red blooms are wonderful I almost prefer them when they start to die and begin to look even more other-worldly than they normally do. Without the spiky red blooms the plant isn't very exciting. I tried growing them up north; all I got for my effort was one tiny spike that lasted about 3 days. These have been in bloom for two weeks; they seem to thrive in the warm weather.

After an hour of playing with various shots I opted for the black-and-white version. This image reminds me of a vintage photograph. The background is painted paper towel. I've been slapping paint onto paper towels in an attempt to come up with something abstract to use for a postcard exchange. I couldn't understand the current hoopla about painting paper towels but I'm beginning to understand it. In fact, painting paper towels can be quite addictive.